Pallets have widespread use in industry to warehouse and ship goods. The goods are supported upon the pallets directly or in containers such as boxes and/or bags and the like, and it is usual practice to handle the palleted goods by means of fork-lift trucks; to place and remove goods upon and from the pallets; to shuttle the palleted goods from place to place; and to position the palleted goods in carriers for transport. The fork dimensions of the lift trucks are standardized and to the end that the usual pallet is of standard or modular dimensions. However, the usual pallet is a wooden panel or slats secured to a pair of wooden rails, and subject to splintering and cracking under severe loads; also prone to being damaged by a misguided entry of the forks of a lift truck. Similar objection is experienced as relates to other pallet constructions of sheet metal, constructions involving extrusions of light metals, and constructions involving plastics; and all of which are quite costly when their useful life is considered.
With the foregoing generalities in mind, it is an object of this invention to provide a pallet in the nature of permanent hardware, utilizing structural forms of high strength and of durable material. Consequently, practicality is realized in a relatively inexpensive product in the form of a pallet of moderate weight and adapted to be stored in a minimum of space; and all to the end that the pallets can be furnished to the industries on a commercially economical basis. With the present invention, rectangular steel tubing is employed and embraced in a fabrication involving a minimum of securement steps and embodied in cooperative members that interlock mechanically and which are formed to present a platform spaced parallel to and above a supporting plane.
The use of metals in the fabrication of pallets has not proven altogether satisfactory in the past, due to the fact that cost and weight factors require thinness and malleability to enable fabrication. Consequently, a suitable metal pallet has been too costly when made durable enough, and reversely has been too vunerable to damage when made of light construction. Also, pallets made of synthetic materials such as formed plastics and so called fiber-glass, tend to fracture and delaminate. Therefore, wooden pallets are resorted to despite the deficiencies hereinabove pointed out. However, with the present invention the above deficiencies and objections are obviated in a simple and practical structure which involves steel tubing that is structurally stable in itself and which is comprised of members that are integrally joined and devoid of loose ends. With the pallet hereinafter disclosed, there are longitudinal support rails which carry transverse load bars, the rails being formed so as to permit fork-lift placement and removable of the load upon said bars, and the rails being disposed so as to permit fork-lift elevation of the load placed upon said bars. As is common with so-called two-way pallets, the transverse insertion of the forks implements load placement and removable, while longitudinal insertion implements palleted lifting of the load.
The fabrication of prior art pallets has employed numerous methods and means of material preparation and fastening together of the members involved. Wooden pallets are made from members that are sawed to size and nailed, screwed and bolted together. Metal pallets are usually made of members that are stamped and formed to shape and then fastened as by rivet or screw fasteners and by means of welding. Plastic pallets are molded and cured. And all of these processes are time consuming and costly. However, with the present invention a single tube cross section is employed, preferably a square section of moderate wall thickness, and in practice of a tough steel that is capable of being bent by power operated tools with dies, it being an object to provide a method of manufacture whereby a pallet characterized by elevated load bearing bars is formed from a planar fabrication of integrally joined tube members, the bars being supported by said members which are the members that are formed while the said load bearing bars remain straight and in the elevated supporting plane.